Ten Things To Know for Today and This Week: Gallipoli's 100th Anniversary Remembered

Ten things to know for this day and this week:

1) Today marks the 100th anniversary of Gallipoli

2) The Battle of Gallipoli claimed 131,000 soldiers, including 86, 000 Turkish forces, according to the BBC

3) Today, Prince Charles (pict. top) joined in ceremonies with leaders from Turkey, France and New Zealand at the battlefield in Turkey's western Aegean coast.

4) On the occasion of another 100th anniversary, this one marking the alleged genocide of Armenians in Anatolia by the Ottoman Empire, Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan told the Turkish English-language newspaper "Daily Hurriyet" that he would like to see diplomatic relations between Ankara and Yerevan established.

5) The 7th Annual Nazim Hikmet Poetry Festival takes place in the Raleigh-suburb of Cary, NC, on Sunday; this year, the event will recognize the poetry of Russian poet Anna Akhmatova (1889-1976). (The late Turkish poet Hikmet is pict. center)

6) The liberal magazine "Mother Jones" was founded in February of 1976; it has a circulation of 203,251.

7) The neoconservative magazine "The Weekly Standard" was established in September of 1995; it has a circulation of 104, 682.

8) Barbra Streisand (pict. bottom) turns 73 today.

9) Aurora, Colorado, pop. 325, 078, has the third largest population in the western state.

10) The British new wave/ska band The English Beat was formed in 1978.

http://www.motherjones.com

http://www.weeklystandard.com

For Republic's Day, a Quote from Nazim Hikmet

One of the many great ironies about Turkey, my late father Mehmet Gokbudak's country and a nation I've visited 15 times, is that the great poet Nazim Hikmet (1902-1963), who was a communist who died in exile in the Soviet Union, is now the official national poet of Turkey!

Today, Hikmet is buried in Moscow (image above).

The Republic of Turkey was established by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk on this day in 1923, which was 89 years ago.

Here is a quote from Hikmet, who is honored here in America with the Nazim Hikmet Poetry Festival which is usually held in April:

"Living is no laughing matter. You must live with great seriousness like a squirrel for example_ I mean without looking for something beyond and above living, I mean living must be your whole occupation."

http://www.nazimhikmet.org.tv

http://www.nazimhikmetfestival.org

Quote of the Day/Week-Nazim Hikmet

It turns out that we have had visitors today from Afghanistan?! Of course, we have no idea if those blog hits are from American troops or village dwellers in Kandahar province, but either way_ thanks for visiting.

Today, in honor of both National Poetry Month and the up-coming Nazim Hikmet Poetry Festival in Cary (Raleigh), NC, on April 15th, we quote the great Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet (1901-1963).

The great irony of Hikmet's life is that he lived in exile in her later years in Russia because he was a communist. He ended up dying in Moscow, but today he is the national poet of Turkey and his once-revoked Turkish citizenship was given back to him posthumously.

This year's Nazim Hikmet festival honors the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda.

Here is the quote from Hikmet, who is also my personal favorite poet, with Charles Bukowski being a close second:

"However and wherever we are, we must live as if we will never die."

Quote of the Week- Nazim Hikmet

We are very pressed for time today, but I thought us off with a quip from the late, great Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet (1901-1963) who lived in exile in Russia for his communist views during the later part of his life.

Ironically, this poet, who is buried in Moscow, is now considered the national poet of Turkey.

Here is his quote:

"However and whereever we are, we must live as if we never die."

Special Quote of the Week-Orhan Pamuk

Today, we quoting the great Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk (b.1952) whose 2003 novel "Snow," set in the remote northwestern Turkey of Kars, near the border with Armenia, captured where Turkey is both socially and politically and that has held true in the close for the ten years since it was first published.

Pamuk, like the other two Turkish literary giants poet Nazim Hikmet (1902-1963) and fellow novelist Yashar Kemal (b. 1923), has had many poltiical problems at home. After the publication of "Snow," he has made provacative comments regarding the Armenian Genocide Controversy (it should be pointed out here that when I use this term, Armenians hate the fact that I use the word controversy, and Turks don't like the use of the g-word, but either way or regardless of how I feel, the spat is not going to be made worse or resolved by whatever opinions I hold about the matter. But, unlike Pamuk, I would rather not go down that dark backstreet alley).

The German author Gunter Grass (b. 1927) who has also had isssues with right-wingers in his country defended Pamuk's right to speak about the matter. We are featuring a quote from Grass on other blog.

Here is the quote from the author of "Snow" and "My Name is Red:"

"Dogs do speak, but only to those who know how to listen."

SIDEBAR: Shifting our attention to minor leage baseball, our beloved Durham Bulls (in Durham, NC) beat the visiting Indianapolis Indians 1-0 in a day game today. The two teams face each other again tommorow night; the Bulls have a record of 21-13.

Also, the Salem Red Sox from my hometown of Salem, Va, lost their last game to the Wilmington BlueRocks in Wilmigton, Del., but they return home to face the Winston-Salem Dash from Camel City (Winston-Salem, NC) on Friday night at 7:05 p.m.

Quote of the Week- Nazim Hikmet

Today, we have two quotes from perhaps my two favorite poets on our two respective blogs. Amazingly enough, the Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet (1902-1963) and the great African-American poet Langston Hughes (1902-1967) were born a mere two weeks apart.

Hikmet was born on Jan. 17, 1902, in what is now Salonika, Greece. Due to his communist beliefs, he lived much of his later life in Russia and he is buried in Moscow's famous Novodevichy Cemetery, where one can also see the tombstone of Boris Yeltsin.

Hughes was born on Feb. 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. He passed away in New York where he had resided for much of his adult life.

Hikmet's life is amazing for many reasons, and it would substantially more time than we have here to go into all the details. But, we can show the following ironies about his life:

-Though he is Turkey's best-known poet, Hikmet was not only born in what is now Greece and he died in Russia, but he also had Polish ancestery.

-Since, he is now amazingly enough considered Turkey's National Poet, he was posthumously given back his Turkish citizenship in 2009 which had been revoked during the time of his political activies.

-Joan Baez, of all people, sang a song version of his poem "Nazim Turkusu" in Turkish!

-Hikmet's poem "The Epic War of Independence" is considered to be a patriotic masterpiece which is even revered by right-wing Turkish nationalists today!

Here is his quote:

"Living is no laughing matter: you must live with great seriousness like a squirel for example_ I mean without looking for something beyond and above living, I mean you must be your whole occupation."

Quotes from The Composers- Sergei Prokofiev

Today, as promised, we are quoting two Russian composers on our two blogs. We start Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1936), the modern composer we've quipped so far. He is perhaps best known for his symphonic children's story "Peter and the Wolf," which was written in 1936. It was ironically made into a Disney short film just ten years later.

The Soviet-era composer died on the same day when dictator Joseph Stalin's death was announced.

Prokofiev is buried at the famed Novodevichy Cemetary in Moscow where one can also find the graves of Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet (1901-963) who left Turkey because of his communist views (today, he is ironically Turkey's national poet) and famed Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948) who directed "Battleship Potemkin."

Here is his quote:

"I play rather well- in any case, jauntily. My success was rather great and I should say no doubt unexpected."

SIDEBAR: For those who love all things Russian, Turkish-American writer and scholar Elif Batuman has a relatively new book (released in early 2010) entitled: "The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them." The book, as one would expect, discusses the likes of Anton Chekov and Leo Tolstoy. I will probably never read the rather lenghty "War and Peace" by Tolstoy myself, but Batuman's book is only (compared to Russian novels) 296 pages.

Even though I am also a Turkish-American, I have never met Batuman, though I've been told that her book, which was reviewed in "The New York Times" last year, is really good.

We learned through Wikipedia that Batuman also studied the Uzbek language as a grad student while studying in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

Quote of the Day- from Portuguese Writer Jose Saramago

Unfortunately, the famed Portuguese writer Jose Saramago, pictured here, died last week at his home in The Canary Islands at the age of 87.

Like many great writers, including the late Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet who lived in Russia and the late American writer William Burroughs who spent many years in Tangiers, Morocco, Saramago was an exiled man. This was mainly due to his political views for Saramago (like Hikmet) was a communist even though the Portuguese writer's exile (from what we gather) was a personal choice.

Saramago's novel "Blindness" had been made into a 2008 film with Mark Ruffalo and Julianne Moore, and the writer won the first Nobel Prize for Portugal in 1998.

We are featuring Saramgo as one of the 32 people from the 32 countries in the World Cup.

The Portuguese team made headlines on Monday with a 7-0 thumping of North Korea, which assuredly did not go over well at the Kim Jong Il residence in Pyongyang.

As many soccer fans know (and I consider myself a casual one though I did watch virtually every game of the 1978 World Cup which host Argentina won when I was a child while we were living in Turkey), Portugal has a bonafide superstar in Cristiano Ronaldo, whom David Fellerath of "The Independent Weekly" in Raleigh, NC, called 'a glowering metrosexual.' Ronaldo is also starring in a series of tennis shoe ads with Homer Simpson?!


Here is today's quote from Saramago. It is, as one would fully expect, a political one in nature:

"People used to say about me: 'He's good but he's a Communist. Now they say: 'He's a Communist, but he's good."

Quote of the Week- Nazim Hikmet

"Of course you'll live, red-haired lady of my heart in the 20th century lasts at most a year," Nazim Hikmet.

We posted this entry from the late Turkish poet in honor of National Poetry Month. Hikmet (1902-1963) was a controversial figure in Turkey during his lifetime and his poems, many of which had socialist themes, even lead to prison sentences, so he left in exile to Russia. He is buried in Moscow, and many Turkish tourists seek it out.

Ironically, in recent years, he has been named The State Poet of Turkey!

POSTSCRIPT_ Alas, the great Turkish actor Kemal Sunal (1944-2000) is no longer with us as well. Sunal was the subject of the last entry in my Dead or Alive series. Though, Sunal was not a controversial figure like Hikmet, he did make fun of Turkish bureaucracy as effectively as anyone could in the 1970s (a period of political turbulence in Turkey) wihtout being thrown in jail. Amazingly enough, Sunal was praised by Turkish politicians for exemplifying the Turkish spirit upon his untimely death.

Special Quote of the Day- Nazim Hikmet

Since today is Republic's Day in Turkey, my late father's country, I thought I would quote the great Turksih poet Nazim Hikmet (1901-1963).

Hikmet was a communist who was frequently jailed for his political activity, but ironically today he is considered to be The Official National Poet of Turkey, and one of his poems about a Turkish military victory is actually considered to be a favorite among nationalists! Hikmet lived his later years in exile in the Soviet Union. He is buried in Moscow:

"However and wherever we are, we must live as if we will never die."

Quote of the Week- Nazim Hikmet

The late poet Nazim Hikmet (1901-1963) was born in what is today Greece (the city of Thessaloniki) and he died in Moscow at the age of 61, but he is considered to be the greatest Turkish poet.

Since my late father Mehmet Gokbudak hailed from Turkey and since April is National Poetry Month, I thought I would quote Hikmet who lived both an interesting and oppressed life.

His communist views made him a political exile in Russia, but today, ironically he is now the State Poet of Turkey and some of his poems are even revered by nationalists!

Here is today's quote from Hikmet:

"And, don't forget, a prisoner's wife must think good thoughts."